Company Law and Corporate Governance Renewal in Transition Economies: The Bulgarian Dilemma

The main objective of company law and corporate governance structures is to provide rules and secure efficient functioning of decision-making mechanisms that maximise the value of enterprises and safeguard interests of various stakeholders. Company laws and corporate governance models in different countries have evolved in specific historical, cultural, market and legal conditions that prevent their direct transplantation elsewhere. Assessing available experiences, former centrally planned European economies, engaged in sweeping transformations, are challenged by the need to recreate a delicate balance between investor protection and business discretion of managers to work for corporate value maximisation and social welfare. This essay undertakes an explorative discussion on the possible choices and the costs and benefits related to principalagent problem resolution in economies in transition, with special emphasis on institutions and the case of Bulgaria.     

Lyotard: after and with Marx,within and against capital

This article examines Lyotard's thought by means of a review of his conceptions of Marx and capital. Lyotard is taken to hold ambiguous views on both Marx and capital throughout his career. These ambiguities reflect his development of a post-Marxist standpoint. The ambiguous character of Lyotard's reading of Marx and capital is heightened by the fact that the ways in which they are formulated vary in the course of his career. In criticizing Marx, Lyotard tends to assume an absolutist form of Marxism that abstracts from the variety of ways in which Marx can and has been interpreted. Likewise, Lyotard tends to misrecognize how he retains aspects of Marx's critique of capital, and hence does not explore the critical connections between his own standpoint and that of Marx.     

The sciatic notch/acetabular index as a discriminator of sex in European skeletal remains

The sciatic notch/acetabular index and its rule of thumb application was tested on two European skeletal series of documented sex. The results showed poor consistency between documented and estimated sex. Of the two variables comprising the index, it appeared that sciatic notch width was a particularly poor discriminator of sex. It is suggested that this may be due to differences in the relationship between sciatic notch form and body size in different ethnic groups.     

Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc.: Revisiting Pre-emption for Medical Devices

The recent United States Supreme Court decision in Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc. affirmed the doctrine of pre-emption protection only for those medical devices reaching U.S. markets via the PMA (premarketing approval) process and preserved the previous Lohr v. Medtronic decision's lack of preemption protection for those medical devices marketed via the generally more abbreviated 510(k) clearance mechanism. This paper reviews the logic and faults of the Riegel decision and discusses the implications of the Riegel decision for pre-emption protection for other classes of FDA-approved medical products.     

Is there a magical time boundary for diagnosing eyewitness identification accuracy in sequential line‐ups?

We examined whether eyewitness identification latencies for sequential line‐up decisions indicate an optimum time boundary that reliably discriminates accurate from inaccurate decisions. Participants (N = 381) observed a crime simulation and attempted two separate identifications from target‐present or target‐absent sequential line‐ups. As has previously been found with simultaneous line‐ups, the optimum time boundary identified did not reliably discriminate accurate from inaccurate identifications for both line‐up targets. Diagnosticity for choosers was, however, much higher at very high confidence levels than at lower levels. Possible reasons for why one index of signal strength (confidence), but not another (latency), might postdict accuracy within the sequential framework were presented.     

Underwriters' counsel as gatekeeper or turnstile: an empirical analysis of law firm prestige and performance in IPOs

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. Key points

• The article investigates the relationship betweenpricing in an initial public offering (IPO) and the prestigeof the participating underwriters’ law firm.
• The hypothesisof the article is that law firm quality affects how law firmsperform their obligations in IPOs—more prestigious lawfirms acting more independently. Consistent with this hypothesis,the authors find a negative relationship between pre-IPO priceadjustment and the participation of prestigious underwriters’counsel, and a negative relationship between the participationof prestigious underwriters’ counsel and initial return,which is consistent with market trading reflecting the decreasedrisk associated with offerings involving prestigious underwriters’counsel.
• Finally, it is found that certain observable characteristicsindicating diminished likelihood of undisclosed negative information(venture backing and quality of the issuer's counsel) are associatedwith an increased likelihood that prestigious underwriters’counsel is used.